Letter to Prospective Patients

I have designed the 6-month program specifically to meet the needs of middle-aged women and men who are at a transition point in their lives. If you have a chronic illness that is stopping you from engaging fully in your life--at any age--read on: you will find much to consider.

I meet many people who are excited by the possibilities in their lives. Like them, you may be at heart an active, engaged person, involved with your community, and wanting to be engaged in making the world a better place. You may have good friends, maybe a spouse, perhaps children and perhaps even grandchildren. You may be looking ahead to what you hope to be an active, engaged lifestyle of making a difference in the lives of everyone you care about. However, you realize that optimal health involves a significant long-term investment. You know that you will have to invest in being able to stay mentally sharp, physically well and for the long term, independent in your home. You have seen older people in your family transformed by a heart attack, stroke, or cancer. You may have had your own experience with autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, cancer, or have been diagnosed with risk factors such as hypertension or high glucose levels. You may even be starting to wonder if your memory is as good as it used to be, or how to understand the mood changes that seem worse than you previously had. Of course you have read many articles about health promotion and disease prevention and have begun to discuss things with your doctor. But your doctor, while he or she encourages prevention, including colonoscopies, mammograms, perhaps flu shots and keeping your blood sugar and cholesterol under control, tells you that your fatigue, or joint pains, or thyroid issue, or asthma, or especially hypertension, is chronic and cannot be improved, only managed with medication. Some of your doctor’s recommendations may not resonate with you in some way. Perhaps your doctor does not have much training in specific diets, does not believe there are any important vitamins to take, or has no guidance around mind-body techniques. You have read much about diet on the internet, but it is frankly highly contradictory and confusing. You now dread every new headline that includes the words “diet” and “prevention”. It will likely contradict the last one you read. You wonder if they are doing it on purpose! You have read about inflammation, but your doctor does not discuss this. You have read about beneficial bacteria and about epigenetics, but these concepts also do not seem to have practical applications in the doctor’s office. So you continue on, with your energy a bit lower, your mood more irritable, your joints creaky and some concern about having a couple of irreversible risk factors for cancer, or cardiovascular disease. You dislike taking medications and wish you could stop the ones you are taking, but your doctor recommends you stay on them. You wonder if this is your only choice.

I have been in the shoes of your doctor. I trained in family medicine and practiced conventional medicine for 25 years. But then I came up against a situation that changed my thinking completely. I had to admit that there was a better way to practice than I had previously been familiar with. I had to admit there were whole fields of scientific research I had not incorporated into my practice. The amount of effort necessary to become a functional medicine practitioner was enormous and I understand why few are keen to embark on rethinking the principles they were taught in medical school.

So, out of these last 4 years of ceaseless study, I can tell you a few things:

Inflammation, beneficial bacteria and epigenetics are what you need to pay attention to, in order to stay healthy now and into old age, or to recover your health

These can only be optimized through lifestyle adjustments

Some also have nutrient deficiencies, leaky gut, or toxin overload--which need direct intervention

Lifestyle adjustments can be gradual and build upon one other

However, you do need to focus with persistence, and to follow one direction

You may be overwhelmed with information and don’t know where to start but it’s possible to find solid, trustworthy advice

You need to partner with someone who can show you step by step what you need to do

These lifestyle approaches work and you don’t have to be extraordinary to succeed

I had to try these lifestyle adjustments myself, and reverse my own chronic illnesses before I could convince myself that this was for real. As a doctor, it is not easy to decide that instead of following the guidelines published by official societies, you will question everything, go back to the scientific literature, and pore over research studies until you can understand how they apply to your particular patients. But it is crucial that we stay up to date—because you, the patient, are motivated and attentive, and will make some major life changes based on this advice. You expect that I will also be thorough and thoughtful, and familiar with the latest research. What I do, is take you as an individual person, and look back into your history from when you were in your mother's womb. I will review everything that happened to you, health-wise and in your life as a whole. I will point out the patterns I see and how I believe illness has come about, or what illness may be a risk for you in the near future. Then, from knowing how it came about, or might come about, I will recommend how we can reverse or prevent it.Functional medicine is root-cause resolution medicine. We don’t address symptoms, we look for their origin: two people can have the same symptom for different reasons. Having their best shot at future health depends on figuring out that underlying reason: it is never enough to just make the “warning light” turn off. Once you know how the problem came to be, you can give the body what it needs and remove what is likely to be harmful.

So if you treasure your vitality, independence, mental sharpness and freedom from pain for decades to come, but have felt terribly confused by conflicting evidence in the popular press, this is the program for you. I will point you in the right direction. This is highly personalized advice. I will look at your genes, your history, and where your particular body’s strengths and weaknesses lie. I will look at everything, and I will explain where the certainty is and where the controversies lie. I will suggest certain things, recommend others, and most highly recommend a few. In some cases I will be quite insistent, but of course you are in charge, ultimately. I love helping others be as healthy as they need to be, in the service of what they feel is their life’s higher purpose. I want to help you be your best self, but only if you are truly able to participate, and to give this your best effort, as it will take a spirit of experimentation, some persistence and determination. I think you will be thrilled with the outcome.